Nick Wright: Rockets are so much more capable of instilling fears in the opposition

I don't have some hard and fast loyalty to Capela, but then you are swapping players not adding them.

This team needs to ADD rotation players.

 

Do you deal Capela for Ibaka?

Ibaka is expiring after this season and his game is slowing down.

How do you address the 3/4?

 

Agree on adding rotation players........ just looking at the awkward fit of Capela and the salary distributions....... I don't see how we do much without moving Capela. Perhaps we deal Capela and a pick or just Capela for two rotation pieces.

I can tell you that the Rockets were checking in on Hollis-Jefferson before opening night..... he can rebound and defend at the 3/4........ but cannot shoot to save his life.

 

No.

Or only if you have a legit viable replacement for Capela.

 

After watching some of the various clips on youtube from this morning's shows... it's clear they get sucked into their own media narrative.

Constant talk about the offense, and offensive mix.

The Rockets need a legit 4 and better defense.

It has little to nothing to do with the Harden-Westbrook combo.

 

House is important to the starting line up so far this season

 

Understood.

So we are back to square one.

FWIW Ibaka would end up playing center 30 minutes a game anyway.

The Rockets front office has been locked in a box somewhat by ownership.

 

A consistent House lets the Rockets focus on adding a 4/5 and moving Tucker to more of a jack of all trades role where he would be better suited.... I t also lets Gordon stay on the bench....

Theoretically the Rockets bench could be very good.

 

All of this.

 

Sure... I don't think it matters too much what happens rotation wise if you could add that legit 4. House to the bench, PJ to the bench, whatever.

It's the one piece that solidifies everything. Your bench gets better. Your defense gets better. Your rebounding gets better.

I have no idea how DM does it. I would have been open to moving EG, but with the contract extension I guess that doesn't happen now.

 

I agree with what you said. Man... it does get frustrating reading idiots' comments on post regarding harden or the rockets & how we can't never advance or that MDA's style can't win bball. The same could be said about 29 teams in the last few years..

Raptors didn't beat the warriors, they were just fortunate to face curry & draymond in the final not the warriors that the Rockets came close to beating.
Yea, i know. we loss.. Most idiots out there just doesn't get it.

 

"Late in games, Chris Paul was not allowed to have the ball" - that is nonsense, watch the 2018 WCF's games 1-5. Thanks.

 

Yes get Ibaka, then KD, then we can tell the league OK, C u again!

 

Yeah we'll see. This team has not looked fearful

 

Yeah... not sure I'd describe it as locked in by ownership though. DM could have made different moves to be more forward focused.

He's got a tough job to fix it.

McLemore makes $5.5 million. Then there's a bunch of small contracts that are tradeable later in the year. Then you may be forced to choose between PJ (at $8.3 million) and House (at $3.5 million) to be able to make a trade.

Not that this would happen, but it'd be interesting if the Rockets did something like PJ/House/McLemore for Draymond, lol.

 

yep opponents need to stop fouling him

or league needs to change the rule again 4 straight years

 

Yeah we'll see. This team does not look fearful so far

 

Rockets bench will be good as soon as EG gets out of his typical slump. This is an every season deal where he shoots like **** for a month then he looks like an all star the next month.

My concern is all about defense on this team. We can't expect to compete if we can't at least be in the 8-12 range. We will be having close games all season long and lose some heartbreakers because of it. It will be the same as last season.

 

We likely have to be in the top 3-5 defensively to win the title.

The good news is that the issue defensively is the pieces and not most the core pieces. That is to say, if we add a long 4/5 and a rotation wing, our defense likely would improve more than the sum of the parts.

 

With a "relatively" healthy CP3, we were greater than the sum of our parts. Now, with Russ, the sum of our parts should exceed that....As to how much cream on top of THAT.... We. Shall. See..